Spices in beer

[Chris Craig]

I'm planning on doing a gingerbread porter for the Christmas beer exchange, and I have no idea what to do about the spices.  I'm thinking of using honey, fresh grated ginger, cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg.

Does anybody have a good rule-of-thumb for using these ingredients?

[jamie_savoie]

I only have experience with ginger and cinnamon. Ginger I used 0.3oz in 5.5 gal and it was lightly noticeable but in was in a saison.  Cinnamon I went 1g per gal but it's still fermenting. From my research, it's on the safe side.  I've used honey only in 2-3 beers and I never could detect it in the finished product but I still like to think that it adds a little something 

[Fhilo]

I don't have any experience with spice, but I've had a few beers with cloves and I find they tend to overpower everything else...

[brew]

A little goes a long way - with the Pumkin spice a teaspoon (of all spices combined) per 5G in the boil and another teaspoon in the secondary is plenty. Cloves and Nutmeg should be used sparingly...

[Jake]

I did a Honey Ginger winter warmer last winter ... turned out pretty good. I think I used 1.5 pounds of honey in the last couple mins of the boil, and I added maybe an oz of fresh grated ginger root near flameout ... I wouldn't use much more than this.

http://nbcba.org/forum/miscellaneous/ginger/msg20354/#msg20354

I'll see if I can fiind the actual recipe ... If I remember correctly it was 1 Oz of ginger and it was a decent amount.

[Waterlogged]

I did a 46 liter batch of witbeer in sept and I think I used aroung 1/3 oz of pureed ginger I got from the super store.  I bottled it last night and there is just a note of it.  Probably will be stronger once carbonated.  As stated before, with ginger, a little goes a long way.

[jamie_savoie]

While I was checking my Farmhouse Ales book for some reference, I came across this info regarding these spices.  I thought it could give you a good reference point.  Mind you, this is for saison which already have spices characteristics.  It specify that these quantities are for a subtle effect

Curcao Orange: 7g per 5 gal
Ginger: 0.8g per 5 gal
Star Anise: 0.5g per 5 gal
Grain of Paradise: 0.5g per 5 gal